


lèse-majesté

by misura



Category: Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-29 08:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16740157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: "The Iwi now, they call him 'the Little Prince'," Hank said. " 'Prince', 'cause his parents, they're king and queen around here. And 'little', 'cause I guess from their point of view he is."Right,Conrad thought, staring,those giant Iwi.(AU where Kong's parents live)





	lèse-majesté

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetcarolanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/gifts).



Staring at the figure in the distance, Conrad might have almost believed Kong was posing, aware that he was being observed. _A movie star, showing the audience his best side._

"The Iwi now, they call him 'the Little Prince'," Hank said. " 'Prince', 'cause his parents, they're king and queen around here. And 'little', 'cause I guess from their point of view he is."

_Right,_ Conrad thought, staring, _those giant Iwi._ Granted, compared to his parents, Kong was little - tiny, nearly. Small wonder his parents were so protective of him as to attack anything they perceived as a threat. _Such as a group of helicopters._

They weren't wrong, as such. Conrad knew how men like Packard viewed the world: even if Kong's parents had done nothing, the moment they had shown themselves, they would have been labeled a threat, and treated as such, in the spirit of 'get them before they get us'.

"Oh, he's _beautiful_ ," said Mason, as if she was reading Conrad's mind.

"He's a kid, really." Hank smiled a bit. "Been one for years and years. Guess he's going to be one long after all of us are gone, too. And, I mean, why wouldn't he? His parents aren't going anywhere."

Something hovered at the edge of Conrad's mind. Some insight, some notion of how this place worked, about the Iwi and Kong's parents and all of it.

Then Kong moved, all fluid grace and power, and Conrad stopped thinking.

 

It came back to him later that same day, with Mason off to take more of her pictures. Conrad had not yet worked out whether she had not realized that none of them would be allowed to bring proof of anything they had seen here back to the outside world, or if she simply assumed she'd be able to smuggle out some material regardless of what anyone might do to try to stop her.

(She'd been an anti-war photographer for years; she'd know well enough how to do the latter. And she was smart, which argued against the former. Still.)

"No children," he said.

Hank shrugged. "Not much point, is there?"

"You're saying these people are immortal." Hank wasn't, Conrad didn't think. He looked his age.

"They weren't always," Hank said. "Used to be, they got killed by the dozens. Those were the bad times. Before Kong's parents started protecting them."

And how long ago that had been? A hundred years? A thousand? Even longer? "Why?"

"Who knows? Maybe they figured their son would want some friends his own size," Hank said. "Maybe they figured, well, kings need subjects, don't they? And the Iwi - they're good folk. Nice people."

Put like that, it almost made sense. "He comes here, then? To the village?" Conrad imagined seeing that body up close. Imagined how that skin? fur? might feel under his hands.

He wondered at what point he'd started to lose his mind, to experience physical attraction to what was, from a certain point of view, a giant monkey. Like lusting after a tiger, or a lion. Madness.

"Not often, but sometimes, sure. Big to-do," Hank said. "Gets everyone all excited."

It was as hard to imagine the Iwi excited as to imagine them angry, or sad, or displaying any sort of emotion whatsoever. Perhaps that was the price of immortality: to lose one's ability to feel things.

If he got offered the choice, Conrad rather thought he'd pass.

 

He dreamt of leaving, of returning to the outside world, one more experience locked in his memory.

_"Men go to war in search of something,"_ Randa had said.

Randa was a fool and a liar. Most people were, though, so Conrad didn't hold it against him. Conrad had told his fair share of lies-by-omission, of half-truths and outright-lies. A little willingness to bend the truth eased a man's way in life. (A woman's, too, he supposed. Mason was the exception, not the rule. The truth was her stock in trade, her weapon. The camera didn't lie. A picture might tell a more eloquent story than thousands of words.)

_"You haven't found it,"_ \- and now he had, or felt like he had, and what now?

 

From Hank's words, it was clear that waiting for Kong to come to the village was not an option. They didn't have enough time. Even if Conrad might decide to stay, even if Mason might choose to do the same (which was by no means certain), there were still a number of people who needed to make it to the exfil point. Conrad had been paid to do a job, to guide them.

Besides, he liked some of them well enough. Slivko was solid, almost a friend, as were the some of the others. In Packard's case, the sooner Conrad got him off the island, the kindlier he'd think of the man, one professional to another.

He knew he wouldn't be able to track Kong, as such. Predators might be tracked, or prey animals. Men.

Instead, he let an Iwi direct him to the nearest exit to the enclave (the man didn't look up, or raise a hand, or do anything, and yet Conrad wished for directions and felt as if he received them, as clear as if he had asked and been answered). He stepped outside, and there Kong was, as if he'd been waiting.

Conrad supposed that perhaps he had been. It made as much sense as anything he'd seen on this island, and more than some of the things he'd seen off of it.

 

In the eyes of Kong's parents, they might be of a size. Certainly, Conrad thought wryly, they were both dwarfed (and thus threatened) by a great many other creatures on this island. If Kong had been even half as tall as his mother, he'd have been well able to defend himself.

And if Kong had been allowed to reach his father's size, the island might have found itself the domain of not one, but two kings. Not right away, perhaps not for a long time, but even so. Sons grew up to take their father's place. Conrad had grown up a soldier, as his father had been before him.

Kong would never grow up, any more than the Iwi would grow old and die.

If he stretched, Conrad might put his hand near Kong's heart, assuming it was located where a man's would be. Kong snorted, as if reading the thought - and the one that came after, of how he wouldn't need to stretch at all to reach another part of Kong's impressive body.

Compared to the rest of him, it was disproportional. Conrad had seen men of half Kong's size, blessed (or burdened) with attributes nearly as large. It made things possible that a sane man might have preferred to remain fantasy.

Realizing that Kong had likely never been touched, that Conrad might be the first, if he dared, didn't help. It might be untrue, of course: perhaps the Iwi were capable of lust. Perhaps their excitement over receiving a visit from their 'Little Prince' was because such visits occasioned a grand orgy in which all the village might take part.

Kong shoved him, gently, snorting again.

"Hey!" Conrad said.

Kong ruffled his hair and reached one finger to rub his cheek.

Conrad suppressed a sudden desire to lean into the contact. He wasn't even sure why: if anyone ought to apologize, it would have to be him, yet who had ever apologized for what they'd only thought?

Kong looked down at him and bared his teeth. His hands were still exploring Conrad's (regrettably) fully clothed body. Conrad imagined stripping, imagined displaying himself to Kong. The sky was still illuminated by the many-coloured lights that had no scientific explanation, given the island's location.

"Confident, aren't we?" One might argue Conrad suffered from the same vice. He'd never considered the possibility of rejection or even simple incomprehension, let alone of Kong doing to Conrad as his parents had done to Packard's helicopters. He'd looked at Kong, and desired him the way he might a man or woman.

(He hadn't recently. He'd thought he'd lost the knack during the war, as other men had lost their sense of common decency, or compassion, or will to live. He'd sold his services to Randa because money was never a useless thing to have, and he'd told himself he needed to get out of Vietnam anyway.)

Kong leaned down and nuzzled Conrad's face, one of his hands rubbing Conrad's back while the other went in search of confirmation that apart of size, their bodies were alike.

"Some of us don't have fur to keep us warm, you know." The Iwi wore clothes, of course, but not pants. Not things that required buttons and zippers to be undone before one might rid oneself of them.

Conrad reached down, encountering Kong's hand already there. He half-wanted to let Kong work it out, to keep his attention on what the rest of Kong was doing. There were practicalities to consider though: torn trousers would be hard to repair here, and awkward to explain besides.

"If I may - " Kong sighed and withdrew his hands. Conrad bit down on a protest. He'd asked for a moment; he'd gotten it. A nearby bush seemed bush-like enough to be trusted not to run off with his clothes while he was distracted.

Kong growled and tore a few leaves off the innocent bush, putting them in his mouth.

"Very reassuring, if a bit dramatic." Conrad shivered. He wasn't cold so much as turned on, he thought. Nervous, as if he'd never done this before, which might be true, depending on one's definition of 'this'.

Kong groaned and sat down, gesturing as a prince might to a servant.

"Anything else I might do for Your Royal Highness?" Kong's body was warm, his fur soft. Conrad wanted to rub himself all over it. All parts of Kong were within his reach now, which was nice.

Kong smirked.

Conrad decided that enough was enough and set to proving that he was match for any creature.


End file.
